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I Kings 19:9-18
Proper 14A
This week, I am mixing it up—because the Lectionary does—by switching to an alternative reading from Hebrew Scripture: The story of Elijah meeting God in a still, small voice. If you are still tracking the story of Genesis, you might see my previous commentary on Joseph here. Commentary The placement of this Elijah narrative matters…
Psalm 85:8-13
Proper 14A
Here is another Lectionary example of a relatively short psalm that for some reason is not recommended in its entirety. Since there is nothing in verses 1-7 that say anything different than the assigned verses here, there’s no harm in just doing the final six verses but equally there’d be no harm in reading the…
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Proper 13A
Psalm 145 pops up four times across Years A, B, and C in the Lectionary though never as the entire psalm and always with a different configuration of verses included and verses bracketed out. There is not a lot of rhyme or reason to it near as I can tell but unless you plan to…
Genesis 32:23-33
Proper 13A
Illustration The dark night of the soul is a concept made popular by a book with that title, written by St. John of the Cross in the 16th century. It means something like a sense of soul weariness, helplessness, a persistent and stubborn dismay with self, with others and with God. Although the concept is…
Genesis 32:22 – 33:12: That Face: Proper 13A
And so it has come to this. Jacob, the heel-grasper, the schemer, the wheeler and dealer, the sneak, the crook, the lie, the cheat: he’s coming home. Deception and wheedling stand on either side of the last twenty years, like bookends on Jacob’s life. He fled Canaan having deceived his old father, Isaac, and having…
Psalm 119:129-136
Proper 12A
Psalm 119 is something of a poetic wonder in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures. As everyone knows, it’s the longest “chapter” in the entire Bible and by a lot at that. Luke 1 wins the prize for longest chapter in the New Testament, clocking in at 80 verses. Psalm 119 looks at that and says, “Tell you…
Genesis 29:15-28
Proper 12A
Fitting this Story into the Whole At the beginning of chapter 29, Jacob arrives in Paddan-aram. In this text, we see all the ways Laban lords it over Jacob. At the end of chapter 30, Jacob gains the upper hand over Laban and in chapter 31, we see Jacob, along with all his accumulated household…
Psalm 86:11-17
Proper 11A
We do not know for certain if David wrote all of the psalms that are attributed to him (probably not seems to be the consensus of many scholars). The Hebrew phrase “Of David” can mean multiple things. Yes, it can indicate authorship but it could also be “in the style of David” or “in honor…
Genesis 28:10-19a
Proper 11A
Genesis 28 comes on the heels of Jacob stealing his older brother’s birthright or legitimately buying it in trade for a bowl of stew, depending on who is telling the story. What we will see play out in later chapters is, indeed, the younger brother receiving the blessing historically passed down to the first-born. This…
Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13
Proper 10A
Even after a couple decades writing sermon commentaries on Revised Common Lectionary texts, it remains a mystery to me just what it means when they place some verses inside parentheses. And in the case of Psalm 65 that means just over half of the psalm is so designated. In any event there is very little…
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